This invention relates to a vehicle image acquisition and display assembly and more particularly, o an assembly which captures and provides images of areas and/or objects which are disposed in and/or toward the front and/or the side of a vehicle.
It may be desirable to allow a user of a vehicle to view certain areas and/or objects which are located or disposed in the front and/or along the side of the vehicle, thereby allowing the user to gain additional images or information over that which is traditionally and/or typically provided by conventional vehicle xe2x80x9crear viewxe2x80x9d mirrors. This additional information may be useful in the navigation and/or operation of the vehicle.
Some attempts have been made to provide images of these frontal and/or side areas and/or objects. Particularly, these attempts include the use of one or more mirrors or image capture devices which are wholly disposed within the passenger compartment of the vehicle, the use of assemblies which are disposed and/or mounted upon the conventional rear-view mirror assemblies or xe2x80x9cmirror-containmentxe2x80x9d members or shrouds, providing an arm or member having several image capture portions or apparatuses and which is selectively extendible from the side of the vehicle, and providing a selectively extendible periscope type assembly which is usually and selectively deployed and/or extended through the roof of the vehicle. While these attempts often provide desired images, they suffer from some drawbacks.
For example and without limitation, the assemblies which are wholly deployed within the vehicle and/or within the vehicle passenger compartment are often hidden from view or optically obstructed due to the placement of packages and/or other materials and individuals present in the vehicle. These obstructions substantially prevent these assemblies from properly operating and/or undesirably interfere with their operation.
The assemblies which are mounted upon the traditional rear-view mirrors are unaesthetic, frequently and undesirably engage, car wash Components, thereby causing damage to the components and to the vehicle, and present and/or display images having substantially identical display sizes in a xe2x80x9cstacked mannerxe2x80x9d (e.g., the image of the front or side of the vehicle is presented xe2x80x9con top ofxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9coverxe2x80x9d the image of the rear of the vehicle), thereby tending to confuse the driver or the operator of the vehicle and distracting the driver by requiring the driver to tilt his or her head to view the frontal and/or side images and/or requiring the driver to take his or her eyes xe2x80x9coff ofxe2x80x9d the rear images.
The selectively extendible assemblies require linkages or members which are selectively extended from the side of the vehicle. These linkages or members require frequent repair or replacement due to the structural degradation that occurs and which is caused by various materials residing within and/or comprising the ambient environment that the vehicle resides within (e.g., road salt). These assemblies, when fully extended, also typically prevent the vehicle from traversing relatively xe2x80x9ctightxe2x80x9d passages, from traversing in close proximity to pedestrians, bicyclists, and/or other vehicles (e.g., such as when these devices are extended during a left-hand turn maneuver). These assemblies further require that the driver or operator of the vehicle remember to retract these assemblies when travelling in these xe2x80x9ctightxe2x80x9d passages, near other objects, and/or when making or completing a left-hand turn, or risk incurring substantial damage to the vehicle, causing other structural damage to other objects or vehicles, and/or injuring a pedestrian, bicyclist, or other individual. Further, these extended members undesirably create xe2x80x9cdragxe2x80x9d which adversely effects the overall performance of the vehicle and which causes the linked members to rotate with respect to each other, thereby potentially destroying the linked connection.
Lastly, the periscope approaches were and are of relatively limited use when the vehicle was or is behind a large truck or sports utility vehicle. Due to the proliferation of such relatively large sports utility vehicles, such periscope approaches are becoming even more undesirable. Moreover, such approaches create undesirable xe2x80x9cdragxe2x80x9d and potentially cause damage if these periscopes are not retracted by the vehicle owner or operator as the vehicle is traversing under a relatively short underpass or traversing a car wash.
It may therefore be desirable to provide an image acquisition and display assembly which selectively provides and displays images of areas and/or objects residing within the front and/or within the front and along the side portions of a vehicle and which overcomes the various drawbacks of such prior assemblies.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a vehicle image acquisition and display assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of such prior assemblies.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a vehicle image acquisition and display assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of such prior assemblies and which acquires and displays images of objects and/or regions residing within the front and/or along the side of the vehicle.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide a vehicle image acquisition and display assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of such prior assemblies and which acquires and provides a first image of the rear of the vehicle and a second image of the front and/or of the side of the vehicle and which displays the second image substantially alongside the first image.
According to a first aspect of the present invention a mirror assembly for use with a vehicle is provided. The mirror assembly includes a generally hollow housing having a first open end portion and a second end portion; a first mirror which is movably disposed within the housing, which substantially covers the open end portion, which is constrained to only move within the housing, and which provides a first image; at least a second mirror which is disposed within the housing; a first member which is disposed within the housing and which is disposed alongside the first mirror; and a second member which is fixedly disposed within the second end portion, which communicates with the mirror assembly and which cooperates with the at least second mirror to provide a second image upon the first member.
According to a second aspect of the invention a method is provided for use within a vehicle of the type having a side portion and a rear-view mirror assembly which is disposed upon the side portion and which includes a housing containing a mirror. The method is adapted to provide images of an area residing within the front of the vehicle. The method includes the steps of providing an image acquisition assembly; wholly placing the image acquisition assembly within the rear view mirror assembly, effective to capture an image of the portion of the area residing within the front of the vehicle; and providing a display member which is communicatively coupled to the image acquisition assembly, which displays the image, and which abuttingly resides against the mirror, and which is wholly contained within the rear-view mirror assembly.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and by reference to the following drawings.